THE KENTISH SYSTEM 299 



virgates entirely superseded iuga as rent-paying units, the villein 

 tenements amounting to 28! virgates of 7^ acres each.^ 



This connotation of the term virgata, a word often found in 

 descriptions of Kentish land, is, however, unusual. Elsewhere in 

 Kentish documents virgata meant a rood, or the fourth part of 

 an acre. Three virgatae, for instance, equalled " una dimidia 

 acra . . . et una virgata," ^ and seven virgatae equalled '' una 

 acra et tres virgatae." ^ Such is nearly always the significance 

 of the term in charters and surveys.^ 



In some places the larger '' sulung " persisted as the rent- 

 paying unit, without any reference to iuga. So late as 30 Henry 

 VI the arrangement in Thanet was that 50 tenants held Mer- 

 gate " swyllung " of 210 acres, while 13, 10, 20, and 15 tenants 

 held respectively the other sulungs of Savlyng, Westgate, Syan- 

 kesdon, and Hertesdowne.^ All sulungs contained 210 acres 

 except the last, which comprised only 146. At Estrey details 

 are given about the four " sulHnga " and the services due from 

 each in a roll written in a hand of the thirteenth century and said 

 to be " de novo compositus sed ab antiquo rotulo abstractus." ® 

 Of these sulungs, each containing about 200 acres, the first is 

 described as follows: *' In sullunga de Ruberghe sunt ccv acre 

 unde Wilhelmus de Ruberghe tenet xlv acras et Willielmus 

 luvenis et socii sui Ix acras et Ricardus cyece et socii sui Ix acras 

 et Stephanus filius Normanni et socii sui xl acras." From this 

 it seems likely that the sulung consisted of contiguous blocks of 

 land, and it is clear that one man was often put at the head 

 of his " socii " as responsible for some 60 acres. Other Christ- 

 church manors at the end of the thirteenth century were assessed 

 by sulungs. In the manor of Ickham we find four of them.^ 

 Again, "apud Monkton sunt xvii swolung de Gavilykind," each 



1 Archaeologia Cantiana, iv. 311 (Inq. p. Mort., 47 Hen. III). 



2 Rawl. MS., B 335, f. 54, 9 Edw. II. 



3 Cott. MS., Claud. D X, f. 123. 



* E. g., Ped. Fin., case 95, no. 133, 11 Hen. Ill: " De dimidia acra terre et una 

 virgata et dimidia." 



* MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, Reg. St. Augus- 

 tine's E xix. f. 182J. 



« Ibid., Roll E, 184a. 

 ' Ibid., Lib. J, f. 106. 



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